1 i cant spell sorry please forgive any mistakes
2 i owe mutch of the joy in my life to TP see below

i am 32 and up to the age of 17 had never really read books couldnt be bothered and if i tried it would take me weeks and weeks to read a short one.
Then one day my life changed a friend of mine had been banging on and on about this terry pratchett bloke and his books and after a rather messy party left a copy of reaper man at mine by mistake, we i thought what the hell give it a go. my god it was the funnyest thing i ever read (knocking Viz and buster gonnad of the top spot)

i finished it in about 3 weeks (very quick for me i was still at peter and jane levels and needed a dictionary for quite a few of the longer words) and rushed to the shops to buy as many of TP's books as i could lay my hands on.

since then i have opened my life to books of all kinds from stephen king to tolken i will always have at least 2 or 3 books on the go at any one time but discworld takes pride of place in my overladen bookshelf

now i am 32 and have a son of 4 and a daughter of 2 i am reliving the joy of reading to them somthing i would never have been able to do had it not been for TP although the still prefer pooh bear to pratchett im persavering i will beat them into submition and they will be pratchett fans.

i have been reading the forums waiting for my account to be auth'ed and saw a thread about what would i ask TP if i ever met him, well all i would say is "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the chance to enjoy so much that is great in the world and giving me the oppertunity to pass it on to my childeren"

thank you for reading just had to tell someone sorry bit of a long one would love to hear how other first got into TP im sure someone will have started one but ho hum.

May God give me
Courage to change thethings in life i need to change
Strength to accept the things I cant
Wisdom most of all to tell me the difference

Good for you Stormblade! Welcome to the site and thanks for sharing your story.

Speaking personally, Terry's books have made an enormous difference to my life and I'm now married to a wonderful lady in Tucson, Arizona because of them

But I suffer from chronic depression and have done since I was a child. I've had some real black spots in my life where I really didn't want to go on. And Terry's books have helped me through those times.

I've also made a ton of friends from being a fan and not only have I been to the US, but I've also spent time with Discworld friends in the Netherlands and even the Shetland Islands.

Terry's books have quite simply changed my life.

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” – Blaise Pascal

Welcome Stormblade! I'm so glad you stumbled onto Reaper Man, because it's one of my favorites. In fact, there are very few of Pratchett books that I can barely tolerate (though there are a few). I am constantly amazed at the man's knowledge and insight into the human condition, and his ability to deal thoughtfully with humanity through comic satire.

I owned, for a while, a bookstore, and I think possibly the first Pratchett I read was Equal Rites since although I was very knowledgeable about mystery writers, I was definitely spotty on science fiction and fantasy. But, like Tony, I've found refuge in reading during some very dark spots in my life.

But although the people from the CA board know this story, for those of you who haven't heard the story (which Tony refers to in his post), we met and eventually married (actually in not all that long) because we were both posting at that time on the HarperCollins Pratchett board. I had gotten (as a bookstore owner) an ARC of A Hatful of Sky, which I loved, but had no one to talk to about it, other than posting that people should buy it as soon as it came out. Well, Tony went to his local Tesco, and some clerk put out the book 2 weeks too early for 2 hours, so he bought it. Then he had no one but me to talk to about it. We began corresponding, left that board and went to the Cunning Artificer Board, and eventually Tony came to visit for the first time--scary!!! But it was as if we'd known each other for years. And, making a long story short that some of you already know, we were married a year on May 27th of this year.

He's coming over on October 13th and staying here in Tucson through the end of the year, so we aren't limited to letters and MSN. But talk about changing your life--finding each other was the best thing that ever happened for either of us. And we owe it all to Terry.

tony read your bosses letter again s l o w l y i am a dyslexic and have basically overcome the condition thanks to alot of encouragement from my parents who spent hours teaching me to read. i now have about 3500 books and terrys books take pride of place(my mother bought me weird sisters)

measuring intelligence by exam results is like measuring digestion by turd length

Hi stormblade You are an amazing person to have dealt with life the way you have. Like tony I have had some really dark times in my life with depression and reading a TP book helped me through all but the darkest. Keep your kids hooked on books, they will thank you for it.

I guess I am one of the lucky ones - nothing very bad has happened to me. Terry has made a huge impact of my life however - I used to have to find things to do to fill my spare time - not any more.

Since I let Terry into my life I now spend most of what I laughingly call spare time theses days with writing Discworld Monthly and moderating this and the HarperCollins web forums. Not that I mind, no really I don't.

For me finding Mr P was by chance, and it hasnt had any adverse affect on me except for the fact that, its costing me a small fortune collecting his books so im always skint. Otherwise hes just given me many many years of enjoyment reading his books and like a good wine get better with age. One thing is that in the many years to come when he finally passes i know there will be a massive void in my life knowing no more new books, unless ..................... his daughter takes over and writes more, but first she'll have to stop all that silly programming

Then may we all live just the same, so we can read every one of his books. Normally I'd hate the prospect of living to old age, but the promise of more Terry Pratchett books is more than enough to tempt me.